Please help me: Duke Econ (MA) vs. Michigan MAE??

[Emo]

I'm an international student from Turkey and got acceptance from both Duke Econ (MA) and Michigan MAE. So far, I've been interested in "international trade" issues and "economic&econometric modelling" related with international trade. I want to enhance my skills in these areas and also get into "financial economics" issues. I also want to earn a PhD. degree in my later career; and now trying to pick the best school for me...

Regarding;

1- Reputation in economics,

2- Living expense,

3- Social activity opportunities,

which one would you suggest me to choose??

It is hard to get the right information from 14 hour-fly-distance and I really am looking forward to hearing your guidence...

Thanks a lot...

Edited April 16, 2010 by Emo

[nekopilot02]

1) Duke Econ is very good. They have a lot of strong faculty with a wide breadth of research interests. In financial economics you're looking at George Tauchen and Tim Bollerslev (among others) who are big names. Also, as an econ masters student you can take classes at Fuqua (the business school) which has a lot of distinguished faculty too.

2) Durham is pretty cheap. Maybe comparable to Michigan though. I'm not too sure on the comparison.

3) I cannot speak for the econ department but in general it seems that graduate life at Duke is pretty vibrant (especially if you're in to basketball =D). There's a large amount of graduate students in the Econ department.

All this being said, as an undergraduate I hated my experience with the Duke Economics department. I felt like they didn't care at all and treated me like I was just another number in the system. This might be different for masters but there are a lot of students in that program as well. Though, I think if you are a pretty autonomous person with set goals this might not be an issue for you. I, on the other hand, was trying to find a direction and they were not helpful in the least.

Hopefully this was useful! Good luck!

[Shiryatsya]

I can only answer as to price, but traditionally Ann Arbor is more expensive (at least right next to campus) than Durham. I visited Duke (for chemistry not econ) and one thing that stuck out vs other places was all the grad student seemed happier than at other place (but maybe they just knew to hide the unhappy ones)

Sorry that I can't be more helpful and best of luck

[Emo]

Thank you guys; these are all helpfull...